Winfield Scott Schley (1839-1911)
MSA SC 3520-14158
US Naval Officer
Biography:
Rear Admiral Winfield Scott Schley was born at Richfields, near Frederick, Maryland, on October 9, 1839. After attending primary schools in Frederick, Schley entered the United States Naval Academy in 1856 and graduated four years later, in 1860, as a naval officer. Lasting from 1860-1861, Schley's first commission on the Niagara took him to China, Japan and India as part of a cruise designed to transport the Japanese ambassadors back to their native lands after their first-ever visit to the United States. Schley spent much of his naval career on the seas, but returned to Annapolis twice, between 1866-1869, and again from 1873-1876, to teach at the Naval Academy.
Schley returned from the East in time for the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861. Fighting for the United States Navy, Schley served on ships in Charleston, South Carolina; Mobile, Alabama; and on the Mississippi River, including the bombardment at Port Hudson, Louisiana. Schley was promoted to lieutenant in 1862 for showing "courage and characteristic eagerness for distinction" in these tours. Schley spent the remainder of the war in the Pacific as the executive of the USS Wateree. After his first teaching stint at the Naval Academy, Schley served as executive of the USS Benicia of the Asiatic Squadron and was involved in the 1871 Korean expedition. Schley also commanded a ship in the South Atlantic Fleet between 1876-1879.
Schley's two most famous commissions occurred during the last two decades of the nineteenth century. In 1884, Commander Schley undertook a dangerous mission to sail to the Arctic aboard the USS Thetis and rescue Lieutenant Adolphus W. Greeley and his six surviving companions who had been trapped and were on the verge of death. For his successful rescue of Greeley, Schley was named Chief of the Bureau of Equipment and Recruitment of the Navy Department, and also received awards and recognition from the Maryland General Assembly and the Massachusetts Humane Society.
At the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in 1898, Schley, who by this time had been promoted to Commodore, was ordered to take his squadron to participate in the blockades of the ports of Cienfuegos and Santiago. Onboard the flagship USS Brooklyn, Schley helped lead the American fleet to victory over the Spanish fleet on July 3, 1898. Although Schley's role in the Battle of Santiago was somewhat controversial, as a judgment for his conduct and failure to obey the orders of the fleet commander and the Navy Department was later rendered against him by a naval court of inquiry in 1901, he was still promoted by President William McKinley to the rank of rear admiral in August 1898 for "eminent and conspicuous conduct in battle." After his promotion, Admiral Schley directed the evacuation of Puerto Rico in 1898, and the following year was named Commander of the South Atlantic Squadron, a position which he held for two years until 1901.
Schley married Anna Rebecca Franklin in Annapolis in 1863, and they had three children. After forty-seven years of service, the immensely popular Admiral retired from the United States Navy on October 9, 1901, his sixty-second birthday. Schley retired to Washington, D.C., and died suddenly of apoplexy on October 2, 1911, in New York City. Admiral Schley is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
The life-size bronze bust of Admiral Schley (MSA SC 1545-0759) was made between 1902 and 1904 by Maryland sculptor, Ernest W. Keyser in his Washington, D.C. studio. Chapter 31 of the 1902 Laws of Maryland called for the purchase of the bronze bust of Admiral Schley together with a suitable pedestal as a way to perpetuate "the memory of the said Winfield Scott Schley...so that he may be recognized by future generations as the hero of one of the greatest naval battles in which this country ever engaged." The bust was completed early in 1904 and temporarily installed outside the Old Senate Chamber in the rotunda of the original 1772 portion of the State House. The bust was moved to its present location after the completion of the State House Annex in 1905.
Prepared by the Maryland State Archives, 2003
See also: Biographical Fact Sheet for Admiral Winfield Scott Schley, prepared by Sasha Lourie
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